Trayvon Martin shooting spurs hoodie march in Connecticut

Published 12:00 am, Sunday, April 1, 2012

Yale University sophomore Edirin Okoloko (center) waits for the Hoodies Up New Haven march to begin on Dixwell Ave. New Haven on 3/31/2012.Photo by Arnold Gold/New Haven Register

Yale University sophomore Edirin Okoloko (center) waits for the Hoodies Up New Haven march to begin on Dixwell Ave. New Haven on 3/31/2012.Photo by Arnold Gold/New Haven Register

Trayvon Martin shooting spurs hoodie march in Connecticut

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NEW HAVEN -- Hundreds of hoodies marched through the city Saturday, a fashion statement that has come to symbolize national outrage over the troubling death of a Florida teen.

Hoodies Up New Haven began at the front steps of the Dixwell Community "Q" House on Dixwell Avenue and continued downtown to the steps of City Hall. There were gray hoodies, green hoodies, striped hoodies, tie-dyed hoodies, brand-new hoodies and a few worn-out hoodies that settled wearily on their owners' heads.

Beneath each was the face of a person demanding action on behalf of Trayvon Martin, 17, who was shot and killed in February by a neighborhood watch member, George Zimmerman, who contends he acted in self defense.

"I want to see George Zimmerman arrested," New Haven activist Sheldon Tucker said. "I've also got to be honest and truthful: There are George Zimmermans all over the place."

Tucker told his fellow marchers, "When you take your hoodie off your head, keep it on in your heart."

Another marcher, 72-year-old Gayle Hall, carried a sign that said: "Shame on the Fla. Police for not up holding the Law."

"If we don't get out here and fight for our children, who will?" Hall said.

An even larger march played out Saturday in Sanford, Fla., the town where Martin, 17, was killed. Thousands of protesters carried signs, chanted "Justice for Trayvon," and clutched the hands of their children while they walked to the Sanford Police Department from a local high school that served black students during the segregation era. The march was organized by the NAACP and was one of several taking place over the weekend.

"We live in the middle of an American paradox," the Rev. Al Sharpton told the crowd. "We can put a black man in the White House, but we cannot walk a black child through a gated neighborhood. We are not selling out, bowing out or backing down until there is justice for Trayvon."

Martin had been walking from a convenience store back to his father's fiancee's home in a gated community outside Orlando. The case has stirred a national conversation about race and the laws of self-defense. Martin, a black teenager from Miami, was unarmed when he was shot by Zimmerman, 28, who is Hispanic. Zimmerman told police the teen attacked him before he shot in self-defense.

In New Haven, marchers represented a variety of groups, including the Black Student Alliance at Yale University, MEChA de Yale, My Brother's Keeper, Unidad Latina En Accion, the Connecticut African American Emancipation Committee and NAACP branches from Southern Connecticut State University, the University of New Haven and Yale.

"What we think makes this march different is that it has an advocacy side to it," said Yale freshman Sterling Johnson, who held a sign that read: "We Are Trayvon Martin."

"This is basically a platform across the nation to talk about racial profiling," added Kiki Ochieng, also a freshman at Yale.

Joe Montgomery, 32, of New Haven said, "The fact that it takes the Justice Department to go down there and do an investigation is ridiculous. Evidence suggests that boy was murdered."

Hoodies Up New Haven had plenty of multigenerational support, as well. Recent New Haven mayoral candidate Clifton Graves took note of gun violence that has taken the lives of young men in New Haven, Bridgeport and around the country. "This is a lifelong struggle," Graves said. "We wish it were otherwise, but it is a lifelong struggle."

Longtime activist and former Black Panther Kathleen Cleaver told the marchers, "This is an amazing moment at an amazing time."

In Sanford, Sharpton and other civil rights leaders, including the Rev. Jesse Jackson, spoke during a two-hour rally following a half-mile march.

"This is not about a hoodie, it's about racial profiling," Jackson said. "We will use our marching feet, civil disobedience and every weapon in in our nonviolent arsenal until justice is served."